Caring For God’s Creations

Karen Swallow Prior hopes that animal welfare makes a comeback in Christian communites:

Many Christians accept or ignore the wide-scale suffering of animals under the justification of scientific “progress” or cheap meat (as a meat-eater, I include myself here). This perspective, though, reflects the influence of a modernist worldview more than biblical thinking. After all, it wasn’t the Bible but rather the father of modern philosophy, René Descartes, who helped popularize the idea that animals are mere machines to be put to human service. “Here is my library, from which I take my wisdom,” Descartes told an observer as he dissected a calf. Descartes’ disciples are said to have kicked their dogs and laughed to hear the “creaking of the machine.”

In contrast, while the Bible mandates humans in Genesis 1:28 to rule over animals, other passages make clear that we are to do so with kindness: the Scriptures tell us not…